Family Pictures 2011

Porter's First Buck

The flu hit our house the day Olen and I were suppose to head off for our hunt, so I stayed home with our girls and sent Porter with Olen instead.

Now after a week in the woods my boys are finally coming home! Yay! I'm thinking venison steaks for Thanksgiving this year.

"Be Prepared" ... Because they grow up so fast

Posts Off the Cutting Room Floor

Here are some of the things that almost made it to my Facebook wall this week:

1. Yes, my front yard looks amazing. Thank you, thank you.

2. Went to Show Low to see a vein surgeon about my leg and he told us there's nothing he can do until I'm done having kids. Olen told him, "We'll be back in ten months!" Um, probably not.

3. Porter picked and juiced all the lemons from our two lemon trees and sold lemonade on the front curb during the Easter Pageant. If he sold lemonade for the week of the Pageant every year till his mission, he would have a quarter of his mission paid for.

4. Only two more weeks of class! I'm more excited about summer break than my kids.

5. London told me her throat was broken. She has a cough.

6. No phones. No computers. No kids. No doorbell. This weekend Olen and I are going on a home staycation for our 10 year wedding anniversary. Shopping, movies, eating and sleeping in is all that's on the agenda this weekend.

7. Porter has been designing, building and painting his first pine wood derby car for weeks with Olen. Last night he raced and won every heat but two. I'm not surprised though, that kid draws car designs and engines in his spare time. I'm so proud of him.

8. London said little sisters "make the worst days worse". Daisy walked through her tea party on the floor like Godzilla and ran away laughing. Oh, little sisters...

9. I do not like Qwest and neither should you.

10. Daisy went to nursery for the first time on Sunday - and stayed! Relief Society, here I come.

11. The Easter Bunny brought Pillow Pets because Santa didn't think they were that big a deal. Easter Bunny - 1, Santa - 0

Now the proof of my front yard improvements. Next up, is the backyard.

Remember December: The month of Christmas 2010

One of my favorite parts of December is the increase of music, especially music from a choir of eight year-olds because they are as much fun to watch as they are to listen to.

Porter's choir concert started the month of Christmas music celebrations.

London doesn't eat "boy colored" M&Ms

If you are a blue or green M&M, you just might survive. 

All other colors, best of luck.

Happy Memories Kept Here

Yesterday the girls and I were eating lunch in front of the television. I was watching a documentary and the girls were eating all my lunch. I stayed and kept watching for a while and the girls went to the back of the house, I thought they were just playing in their room. Then Daisy brings me a picture taken at my wedding reception and London brings me one from Porter's 3rd birthday asking if we still had the game he was unwrapping.

I ran into my room and found two photo boxes worth of pictures spread across my bedroom floor. Negatives in one big pile and all the photo sleeves torn in half in another. I picked Daisy up, changed her diaper, gave her a bottle, and put her down for a nap. Then I knelt down in the mess on my floor and started to cry. How could I ever think it would be fine for me to sit and actually do something I wanted without consequence? London came in and said she was sorry for opening my bedroom door and letting Daisy play in the pictures. She said she would draw me a picture to make me happy again. She drew a snowman standing by a rainbow. It helped.

I tried to put pictures from the right events together in the same pile but there were just so many I gave up. Then I started looking through the envelopes the girls hadn't opened yet. I saw the garden we had at our acre house in Queen Creek and the 4th of July when it was still just Olen, me, and Porter. I saw Olen and Porter, who was barely four, standing in a dirt field that would eventually become our house on Domingo Road. There were pictures of Porter in the hospital after his appendix was removed and our trip to Sea World. What happy memories were scattered from my dresser to the door of my bedroom floor. Some I had forgotten about. I gathered all my pictures and put them back into their boxes on the shelf.

Some days I feel like I'm stuck on repeat doing the same things over and over. But I guess if the memories in those boxes are proof of what I keep doing over and over, then maybe I'm doing something right.

The year, 2003. Just a normal Saturday morning when we had the best neighbors in the world.

Hitting Pause

I'd like to pause the posts about the past for a moment and bring you up to speed on the present. Well, not all of it, but some.

I mentioned a while back that I am the YCL (youth camp leader) Leader for our Stake's Girls Camp this year. (I do have four other women serving with me, thank goodness.) Tonight is our very first meeting with our Stake's young women. I am so nervous that I'm too out of touch with what's cool and the side of me that likes to get business done first and fun done second will show through and the girls will think I'm lame and not come to camp and lose their testimonies and their daughters won't come to camp and their granddaughters won't ever know the gospel. Geesh.

Camp will be on the front burner of my brain for the next three months (please go by fast. please go fast). Here are some things that are getting demoted to the back burners to make room:

My Etsy shop. I mentally checked out of my shop a while ago. I still manage to get a sale every week though. I knew my heart wasn't in it anymore when I would feel stressed out with a sale instead of feeling excited. When sewing and selling become just one more thing on my long "to-do" list, that's a problem. I have so many ideas for new onesies and other things that I've started doing that I would love to add but, well, ya know. I'm just going to put this on the shelf until I can really put my whole self into it. I love sewing and crafting too much to make it feel like something I have to do instead of wanting to do. I'm actually putting my last onesie in the mail today and then putting my shop on vacation mode till I get my life back after girls camp.

Next thing to get shelved; my craft club. This one is hard to let go of. If anyone else would like to spearhead this, please, be my guest. Right now my head lacks the space to squeeze this in. Once camp is over I'll sound my chimes and the Gypsy Ladies will gather again.

I am so happy that my creative writing class will be over in 6ish weeks. I wish I could move this to the back burner, but I want to see it out to the end. I'm not enjoying it as much as last semester. I think it has to do a lot with the new group of students I'm with. It's a younger crowd this time around, in fact, there may be only five people older than I am out of us twenty. We're required to write two short stories each and then we read the stories and edit them as if we were going to publish them in our literary magazine. As a class, we then discuss the stories' strengths and weaknesses. I love the editing/publishing aspect of the assignment but I hate (loathe) the reading part. I was a good sport and read all the stories from the first round, but now in round two, I'm putting my foot down. I'm taking this class for my own enjoyment and reading about graphic details of sex, drugs, and rock and roll is not my idea of fun. I would rather get an "F" than an "A" and the permanent mental images that came with it. Once this class is over  I'll have my Monday nights back and be able to read what I want again. Praises be!

Olen and I will celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary on April 20th. Go us! Go us!

Olen made himself a personal fitness goal and has started working out with his brother in the morning and being very aware of what and how much he eats. It's very inspiring and helps me stay excited about my own fitness goals. I don't do as well as he does. He can turn the other cheek to chocolate but I face it head-on with my mouth wide open. I'm getting better though. Baby steps.

I wish I could find one of my favorite quotes from President Monson, but I can't seem to right now so I'll paraphrase, maybe I've already mentioned it. President Monson said that we should always put people above projects.

I find myself having to pause and say "Is this a project or a person?" about twenty times a day. When help is needed on homework, a drink is too high to reach, a shoe needs tied, a bum needs wiped, a hug needs giving or my attention is required, that's when it's time to put down the project and focus on my people.

Here's how I function: This guy.

It was late, the kids were in bed and Olen had already had an eight-hour day. I was busy entering BPOs (broker price opinions - my real estate data entry I do about two or three hours a day from home and like a lot). I hear the water running and dishes clanging. I spied this scene going on in the kitchen and then captured the service with my camera in secret. He heard the shutter and my cover was blown but that was all right because I couldn't have given him a big squeeze in secret anyways. I couldn't make it through one day without him. I'm pretty sure my brain would explode.

November in a Nutshell: Hair Today...

Before we left for our Thanksgiving road trip Olen and Porter went to have their hair cut by the Reynolds' family resident hairdresser, our sister-in-law Cara.

Daisy is my only baby to actually have hair before her second birthday and it was time to clean up the mullet. She did great and stood so still only moving a little to see what was going on in the back of her head.

Daisy's first haircut: November 2010

When we got home from Thanksgiving I was having my hair done by Jessica and after being so frustrated with London's hair growing funny (remember when she cut a clump out of the back last summer?) I asked Jess to change it up a bit.

It took some serious negotiations and a few ring pops, but London finally got excited about the idea of a new "do". I loved her short haircut! London doesn't like ponytails, so her long hair was a hassle. The short cut was easy to wash, fix, and always looked done. London liked her short hair for a while but has now decided that she wants long hair "like mommy". How can I argue with that? Her hair grows pretty quickly and is already down to her shoulders but I forgot how long it was until I pulled up these pictures.

Jess had to work pretty fast before London had time to change her mind.

So chic!

I just love having girls.

Forgotten Holidays - Part Two: Thanksgiving 2010 in Ft. Collins, Colorado

Our family made one of the best decisions of 2010 and spent Thanksgiving with Christopher and Katie in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Chase and Bethany and {a very tiny} Oakley came and made our caravan from Mesa, Arizona complete.

The bright lights of Albuquerque, New Mexico. We pit-stopped here and ate at Rudy's. Now we only have three or four more Rudy's in the US that we haven't been to. But who's counting? (Olen, that's who.)

We arrived at Chris and Katie's house a little ahead of schedule, about 4 o'clock in the morning. It was dark so we convinced the kids that it was still night and tucked them into the warm beds waiting for us.

The day before Thanksgiving Chris and Katie took us to one of their favorite parks. We would have stayed longer outside if it wasn't 56 degrees below freezing with a frost-bitten wind chill. Ok, not really that cold, but it was really fun.

Chris looks so cool in this picture going around on this twirly thing I don't think I have the heart to post the picture of him after he fell down.

Oh, wait. Yes, I do.

Look at all the rosy cheeks! It was so cold, I tell ya.

On Wednesday night we (by "we" I mean Chris and Katie) made all the pies, baked the rolls, and prepped other yummy stuff for the big feast.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

Brothers for the Brotherless. Porter and Asher made a perfect pair. Asher kept up with Porter in every way and even wore him out at times.

Cooking, chopping, slicing, and dicing. We seriously spent all day in the kitchen either making food or eating it. Heaven. Simple heaven.

Chris's first turkey. It was a total success and he was just a little bit proud.

The official carve.

You can take the picture out of the photographer, but you can't take the photographer out of the picture.

I love this picture. Guess who wasn't so happy about sitting at the kids' table?

The gracious hosts.

The Pies!

The cooks. This was right after we ate and Olen was hugging my tummy so tightly. That's why I am making that face.

Our shirts say: "We rocked it like Plymouth!" And yes we sure did. We sure did.

In full Richards tradition, we took our whole gang to the movies on Thanksgiving night. The town of Ft. Collins was in a turkey-induced coma and we were the only ones out on the roads. Making Daisy happy during a 2-hour movie also makes kind of a big mess.

Thursday night we gorged on pie and dinner leftovers. Chase and Bethany prepared dinner for the next day. Needless to say, we came home a few happy pounds heavier.

Chris and Katie prepared fun activities and crafts for the kids.

The boys and the babies playing some Wii bowling.

Port was a Wii expert by the end of the week.

Friday - family picture day!

I'll travel any distance for a great photographer. My brother, Christopher, has an incredibly artistic eye and I'm so grateful he gave the time during our stay to take our family's picture.

London, how about a smile?

You're halfway there!

All right, I'll take it!

The Thanksgiving 2010 bunch.

Since we were all dolled up we took our gorgeous selves to downtown Ft. Collins to eat cookies at the cookie shop, let the kids drool in the best toy store on the planet, and then experience falling down on a freezing sheet of ice and laugh as they dust their frosty bottoms off and do it again.

London did really well, as long as she held on to her bucket.

Porter started on the bucket then found his balance and could skate on his own.

Olen said instead of ice skater he would be the photographer (although credit for the last three pictures goes to Chris). He waited with Daisy who was bundled up in the stroller.

Isn't this breathtaking? On Saturday Chris and Katie lead the caravan to Estes Park. We saw elk, bighorn sheep, and beautiful scenery. It was a little rainy and snowy and a lot windy so Daisy and I stayed in the van most of the time. London, Cecily, and Jocelyn van-hopped and watched movies on Chris's iPad.

Since I was hiding out from the cold in the van, Chris took some pictures for me of my boys hitting the slopes.

We probably shouldn't have let Porter get this close to such a big animal armed with sharp antlers, but Chris was right behind him taking this picture and Porter is a fast runner.

Porter sticks his head out the window and does his pitch-perfect elk call. What I love just as much as Porter's concentrated look in this picture is Katie busting up laughing in the background. His call is so lifelike, you just don't expect it to come out of the mouth of an eight-year-old.

Another day, another beautiful Colorado park.

Round and round we go...until someone falls off. Olen felt so bad when London let go and went flying across the playground. There were some tears and a lot of hugging but London lived (and daddy did too) and we learned that maybe we'll wait a few more years before London goes on speedy spinning things.

I was going through a little McRib phase and this picture is for Katie and Chris who understood.

We did so many fun things but I think my favorite pastime was just hanging out in the family room talking or watching the kids play or forcing our babies to be best friends.

Sunday morning we loaded up and hit the highway for home. 

Goodbye Colorado and Chris and Katie. Thank you for one of our favorite Thanksgiving ever. We are thankful for you.

Our kids did nothing but play, play, play for four days straight. This makes for very sleepy kids on the twelve-hour drive home. It also makes for very happy parents in the front seats.

It was only snowing a little when we left Ft. Collins. For the most part, the roads were clear. We were in lead with Chase and Bethany behind us going the long way home because we wanted to detour through Four Corners Monument. After our last stop for dinner (at the worst diner in America, sorry again Beth and Chase) the weather took a nosedive for the worst.

Olen was such a steady driver and kept his eye on the road (yes, I totally just said "eye", it's ok to laugh, that's funny stuff!). I tried to keep calm and preoccupy the kids with songs and games. We could only drive 40 to 35 miles an hour, so our long drive was getting longer with each mile.

Daisy is never hard to cheer up. She entertained us with her spitting skills.

We rented another minivan for our journey because I loved the one we got for our Florida road trip. Minivans are awesome.

Visibility went like this:

Bad

Worse

Not At All

We were keeping constant communications with Chase and Beth checking that they were doing all right. The roads were covered in black ice and we were crawling along at 15 to 10 miles per hour. Olen was driving and I was directing him by keeping my face six inches from the windshield and saying things like, "See those tire tracks? Stay inside them and I think we'll be in our lane." or "You're almost off the road! Take us to the center about five feet and just go straight." Once our back tires slid and I almost passed out. The kids could sense the tension in the car with our serious moods and I had to tell them they weren't allowed to ask us questions or talk to us because watching the road took 100% of my concentration. It was about nine o'clock at night and there was not a town or hotel in sight.

After Chase and Beth took a little spin they were ready to call it quits and we all decided no one needs to die that night. We rolled into a tiny town just inside the New Mexico border and got a couple rooms at the only hotel for the next 75 miles. After we unloaded the kids Olen and I went out looking for an open restaurant with some hot dinner but everything in town was closed. We headed back to the hotel and saw that the highway patrol had blocked the road we had just come from and were shutting down that stretch of highway. We had just barely made it! We went back to the hotel empty-handed and ate muffins and cheese and crackers and then took hot showers and fell happily asleep in real beds.

The next day we packed up early to clear skies and open roads. Just around a bend from our hotel was the Four Corners Monument, about a ten-minute drive. It was still so cold up there to us thin-blooded Phoenicians and the snowflakes were starting to fall as we pulled in to park. We got out of the van, stood in the four corners, took a picture, and ran back to the van. All the drama and driving for five minutes! But I wouldn't go back and do it any other way. What an exciting way to end such a wonderful week.

In four states at once for five minutes.

ARIZONA! Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

Daisy is twelve months old and has already traveled through twelve states.